How to Make Homemade Cream Cheese

Making your own cream cheese is so freaking easy to do. And it's one of the first things you need to learn how to do, in order to have your own supply of liquid whey, which is needed to make your own fermented drinks and food.

First off, watch this video to get a good idea of what to do. This video is where I learned how to do this, she gives you everything you need to know.  She's my guru.

You MUST only do this with RAW MILK. It will not work with regular, pasteurized milk. Raw milk sours and is still very good for you to consume, pasteurized milk goes bad.  Check out this page for more info about the benefits of drinking raw milk.  If you are local, you can get raw milk from New Leaf Market.  You must ask for it and they go and get it for you from the back. It has a sticker on it that says For Pet Consumption Only.  Do not be alarmed, its the farmers way of not being held liable to the FDA.

First you pour your sour milk into a container, or just leave it the milk container it came in, and set it on the counter to clabber (it's your vocab word for the day!) for 24 to 48 hours.  If your milk is not sour to start out with, it will take much longer.  Keep your eye on it.  When it's thick and chunky, it's ready.

 

Then you pour the chunky, clabbered sour milk into a clean (with non-toxic detergent), rag and tie it up with a string or rubber band. Then you hang the rag up somehow, I just hooked the rubber band over a cabinet door knob, and let the liquid drip out into a bowl.  In Nourishing Traditions, they have a crazy picture of the rag tied to a wooden spoon held over a glass pitcher...but this is MUCH easier.

What drips out is whey. Once the dish rag is done dripping, you open it up and you what's left over is cream cheese! Every time I do it, the cheese tastes a little different and the consistency is different, so don't be alarmed if yours doesn't look like mine or Sarah's. 

You can eat it plain, but its a little too different than store bought for me to eat it straight, but I like it with strawberries or nuts and a little maple syrup with a slice of bread. I also use it plain in baking and cooking when a recipe calls for cream cheese or ricotta cheese. Delish!

Then you bottle up the whey, I use a mason jar, label it and put it the fridge.  It will last about 6 months in the fridge.

This post is apart of The Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania.